Icahn reminds me of Colonel Homer
"and at least part of the board of directors in order to show Microsoft it was serious about any deal"
From 'Colonel Homer' where Homer Simpson becomes the manager of a country and western singer:
"Now before we negotiate, I have to tell you I'm desperate to unload Lurleen, and I'll take any offer."
So let me get this straight, once Icahn has removed the man who wanted $37 at least in a weak market, and more than $40 before the downturn, how much a share does he expect to get from Microsoft? Seems to me he's set the price at $33 max, but once he's weakened the board he can get maybe $29 or less, $25 perhaps, Balmer will negotiate tough.
He's not an idiot and must know this. So what I reckon his motive is this, I bet he holds a lot of MSFT shares, and the deal would have been good for MSFT and so for him it would be a good deal. But Yahoo cannot consider how much MSFT stock Icahn holds or the Firemans pension fund holds, it cannot consider whether it's good for shareholders of MSFT, only for shareholders of YHOO.
So I reckon the board should consider how much stock in MSFT Icahn holds and determine if his interests are the interests of YHOO.